This was a bass behind the condo, and I find a lot of fish in here that for the size of their mouth and body length, they are quite gaunt. I first tried flipping behind the reeds and lily pads, but only took fish that were smaller than this one. I went to an eighth of an ounce bullet weight and started making cast at angles to where I felt the first drop offs should be. In the larger of the two lakes, I took this one, and in the smaller lake, attempting the same pattern, I hooked into my fattest girl yet. She was heavy and took some to bring in, and as I tried to ease her up the boat ramp, she took one last jump and threw the hook. With a broken heart and shattered dreams, I watched her tail, as if waving goodbye to me, and she slipped away. All I could was smile and laugh a bit, but I do have one common factor to her and some others I have lost, the hook. I tried thinking about how many fish I have lost compared to the amount I have landed on these EWG's with the extreme bait keeper bend, and it is staggering. The normal EWG does not seem nearly so problematic, but while these do keep the bait from sliding off, which is the main focus of their design, they seem to interfere with the hook set, often. I know, its a poor workman who blames his tools, but I think it is more than coincidence at this point.

Both the afore mentioned fish were caught on what appears to be a 7 inch ribbon tail worm from Big Bite Baits. It is a very unique, dark green, that I don't often see, and was immediately drawn to, as was a carp in the lake behind me, oddly enough. She broke me off, very bazaar, this is the second time I have had a carp hit a soft plastic in here. These are again the assorted packs at Dick's with no designated color on the label. At a 1.49 a bag, it is a smart way to try some different colors and styles.

Big Bite Baits green worm takes fish at Roost

I started out with the same worm at the Roost, and you don't find the underfed, gaunt little fish in here. They are all fat and fight like Spartans. After I lost my lure in some rocks, I decided to switch to a Bitter's stick bait in green pumpkin red flake. I caught several fish by the house on it and it has worked well for me in here, but after an hour or so I also broke that off. Bitters is located just north of 434 on 1792, and they are really nice people with a constant running 2 for 5 on their in house baits. The plastic is soft, and has a lot of pork fat mixed in, which seems to make the bass really hold on. Since they are so soft though, they do have a tendency to slip the bend when fishing cover or after a fish. The hook sets are good, but I recommend rigging it with the eye of the hook exposed. When you follow this with a bead then a weight, you eliminate the biggest part of the problem. This way the weight is striking against the bead and hook eye, rather than pushing the worm down the hook.

Bitter's Baits

Pete's bass on a blue gill hawg

My brother showed up and broke off on a snag right from the start. He then proceeded to brake off in the mouth of the biggest fish I have seen in here to date. He was using a finesse rig and alternated between a bluegill patterned slurpie hog, and eventually a KVD fat baby finesse in red bug.

Strike King fat baby, been a great go to bait on hard days.

Fat baby fish Shaking it.

The Shaky head with the fat baby took some nice fish for us tonight. Pete pulled this one out slow working it through some little pads near the rocks. A lot of times they would hit right as you approached the rocks.

Shaky head bass on Fat Baby finesse worm

I ran in to some line issues with my worm rod, and it was about 10 pm, so I didn't feel like tying in the dark for fiftieth time. I put the rod down and grabbed the little rod I have been using for Shaky heads and drop shots. It has six pound Trilene mono on it, a Shaky head jig and Fat Baby. I went back to a spot we had fished earlier and started dissecting it. The jig head snagged up twice but I was able to pull it free, and then it felt like I had snagged up once again, only my line was moving off to the side. I reeled down to it and set the hook. Wow, now it really felt snagged and I could only pray that she wouldn't pull me into the pads on light tackle. She was taking drag whenever she wanted to, so I bumped it up to give me a bit more control, and all I could think of was the big girl that I had lost the other night, but I this one didn't get away.

Peter came climbing across the wall when he saw her splashing around, and then took a few pics for posterity. Nothing like light line battles and finesse baits. I think she will spawn by next week and I will be back to find these fish. The one that broke Peter off was longer, but with this type of build, so they're in here.

Beautiful fish, very heavy and oozing roe

Not the best photos below, but I thought it would help to contrast the green worm I am talking about with a green pumpkin red so you can see there is a vast difference, and I think water clarity changes more often than you realize, but sometimes I believe it is even less complicated than that. You have to change it up, throw something new. Finesse baits take really nice fish.